Frugal Friday......The March 14th Edition

Here are our frugal wins for this past week....

*  I love finding marked down foods at Kroger(this really doesn't happen at Walmart).  I found some lo-cal Swoon drinks, some Perfect bars on sale that also had Ibotta rebates, some marked down salads and Brussels Sprouts.

*  We used up some pantry items as well.  Had to buy Marsala wine for a dish I made but that will be used up before we leave here.

*  We also had food waste last week.   I went against my instincts and bought a large sweet potato at a store I don't trust to have the freshest produce.  Well I went to pick that tater up last week to peel it and my hand nearly went right through it, it was so rotten.  Lesson learned.

*  There was no eating out this past week.

*  While grocery shopping I picked up some items for the food bank we donate to.  It wasn't much cash out of hand but helps folks struggling here out and makes us feel good.

Spending money on groceries not for us isn't frugal but it certainly is frugal for others.  Especially if it's toiletries or paper goods which they can't use EBT/Snap benefits on.

* It's been warm here so the heat has been off during the day.  We even had the a/c on one day it was so warm.

*  Entertainment last week was free tv, YouTube watching, doing genealogy or reading.

*  I found money! 

I found a penny in my pants pocket.

While at Walmart on Wednesday I  kept finding change in the store.  A penny here, a dime there, 2 pennies at a self-checkout nobody was using, another penny at yet another checkout and then 2 more pennies in the vestibule when I was leaving.

                

Then a quarter at Aldi's under where the carts are parked outside.

          

Found Money This Week.....42¢

Grand Total Found this Year.......$1.11

That's all I got.

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy   

Frugal Friday.....the Jan. 3rd Edition

Here are our frugal wins for this past week(and the week before while traveling).....

*  I love finding marked down foods at Kroger(this really doesn't happen at Walmart).  We bought salads, hummus, tuna salad and crackers on clearance to eat.  And I did a little Ibotta shopping too. 8-)

*  We also had no food waste last week.   It's hard to have food waste when you aren't cooking. lol

* I cashed out a total of $167.18 between Checkout 51 and Ibotta last week.

*  We bought gas at Kroger, using my points, when possible.

*  We used gift cards when we had to dine out when traveling.  There was one exception-we went to Cracker Barrel and Hubs had the gift card in his pocket and forgot to use it. 8-(  So instead of eating at CB twice, we had to eat there 3 times. ugh

*  I used credit card points to get free or reduced hotel rooms when we weren't staying with family.

*  Entertainment last week was free tv or socializing with family.

*  I found money! 

I found a dime and a penny when we stopped at a Buc-ee's in Georgia on 12/28.

I found a penny when we stopped at a Chili's for dinner on 12/28 in Alabama.

I found a total of .36¢ at Walmart on 12/30-a quarter, a dime and a penny at different parts of the store.

                          

I found .25¢ at Aldi on 12/31 when we went to pick up fresh produce and fruit.

And I found a fuzzy Geo. Washington .25¢ at Walmart by the pharmacy counter on 12/31 when went to pick up an Rx.

Grand Total Found this Year.......$10.70 & 5.30 Euros  I had a strong finish with a found coins streak the last week of 2024.

(And I just counted up my coinage and it came to $12 even.  I must have missed writing down $1.30 of my stash somewhere in 2024.)

That's all I got.

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy 

Frugal Friday....the Dec. 6th Edition

Here are our frugal wins for this past week......

*  I used some Paypal monies to pay for a Kohl's pick-up order.  The Paypal monies used were earned doing a grocery survey.

*  Kohl's sent me a $5 coupon to get me into the store to spend money.  The Kohl's store here is small and never has anything I want/need.

So when we went in there to pick-up an online order I saw this dark chocolate bar for $4.99 so got it for free with that $5 in scrip. 8-)

*  I hit my $5 Weekend Warrior Bonuses on Ibotta and I used a free $20 gift card at Walmart to purchase items we needed to get to my Bonus target.

*  We also had no food waste last week.  We ate everything or put it into the freezer.

*  I joined FlavorWiki this week.  It's sort of like The Insiders where you buy and test products then give your feedback.  Then they reimburse your purchase plus some extra cash for your time and effort.   It's sort of a pain though so I might not be doing it for long.

*  Entertainment last week was free tv or playing with the dogs.

*  I found money!  

We were in a Walmart in the next town over and I kept finding pennies throughout the store.

In our local Walmart the next day, I found two pennies near the change machine and then another penny outside in the parking lot.

The next day when we went to Kohl's to pick up my order and spend that $5 scrip they sent me I found a dime on the sidewalk as we left the store.

Total Found last week..... .18¢

Grand Total Found this Year.......$9.54 & 5.30 Euros  I may hit $10 found before the year is out at this point.

That's all I got.

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy   

Frugal Friday....the Nov. 1st Edition on Saturday

There are a few Frugal wins over the past week.....

*  I got released from Wound Care a week ago Friday so I can get back to PT now.  What a shit show that was.....though I had a great time chatting with the Occupational Therapists who came to change the bandages twice a week.

*  I got a few freebies this past week at the grocery stores.....

First was 5 cans of chili.  Jack Links is now making chili and there is a 
Buy 1, Get 4 cans free offer.  Hubs is the only one who eats chili but I hope he doesn't love this kind because it's pricey. lol

Then I got a container of juice boxes and some gluten-free graham crackers another day and they had full price rebates.  These are headed to the food bank.

Then a container of Taco Bell dip and a bottle of Starry soda yet another day.  Both were free with OTC offers.  The white bag on the left holds 4 lbs. of sweet potatoes.  While those weren't free, they were an incredible .20¢ a lb. at our local Walmart.  I should have gotten more but 4 lbs. is a goodly amount.

We went to a different Walmart on Wednesday, the only one in this area that carries this product.  It had a full price rebate and I plan on keeping this.

Another freebie I picked up at Kroger, a Real Good frozen item.  I would have preferred their bag 'o chicken but all ours carries is a tv dinner deal.  I had it for dinner last week.  The chicken is not breaded(that's ok)but the bbq sauce was weird tasting.  The veggies were a hot mess...at least the broccoli was as it was all shredded up.

We hit Lowe's last Sunday too. There was a deal on My Points on the Method and Meyer's brands of cleaners.  There was also corresponding offers on Checkout 51.  Between the two offers these were free or better than free.

*  My mouse died........

Last Saturday I could no longer revive it by rolling the battery inside.  So I hopped on Amazon and on Monday a new sleek model was delivered......

It changed colors on the under carriage and doesn't need a battery.  And it's purple too!!

*  We bought a car!

Hubs' car was on it's last legs so we've been researching what to replace it with.

We found a great deal at Enterprise locally, went in, test drove it and bought it.  It's a 2023 Malibu with 35K miles on it.  They even gave us $2K for his car as a trade in(so now we don't have to worry about what to do with it).  It was part of the Enterprise Corporate Fleet and was well taken care of.  We put the bulk of the purchase price on Hubs American Airlines card for the miles.  We'll pay it off this coming week.

*  I found money!  

I found a penny by the pharmacy in Walmart on Saturday.

I found 2 pennies in Walmart on Tuesday.

I found  a penny in Kroger last Tuesday.

Total Found last week..... .04¢

Grand Total Found this Year.......$8.72 & 5.30 Euros

That's all I got and all I can do right now.

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy   

 

Frugal Friday.....the June 21st Edition

There are a few Frugal wins over the past week.

*   Picked up prescriptions at Walmart with no money OOP.  Filling that Humira prescription the first time put me in the Catastrophic category so I pay nothing for medications until the year ends and everything resets.

*  Every PT session I grab a bottle of water from the fridge there.  So free 14 bottles of water so far and counting. 8-)

*  I hit up Walmart on Tuesday after PT........

10 x Cesar wet dog food for $9.80.

2 x G-Fuel drink mix sticks for $13.96

That's $23.76 spent.

I got back $7 on Ibotta, $8.26 worth of points on Shop Kick, $4 on Shopmium, $4 worth of credit on Alexa and $6.98 on VTAGZ for the G-Fuel or $30.24 in cash and credits.

I bought all this at my local Walmart that same day.....

2 x Gatorade Water=$3.36

2 x Beggin' Strips=$6.96

2 x Carefree Pads=$17.46

5 x Dove Hand Soap=$24.85

1 x Colgate Toothpaste=$4.96

1 x Barilla Pasta=$2.52

1 x Soft Scrub Toilet Cubes=$3.77

1 x Soft Scrub Cleaner=$3.27

1 x Dial Body Wash=$3.97

Total....$43.98 after using a free $25 gift card and $7.25 in coupons.

I received back $33.25 Ibotta, $4.12 Shop Kick, $6.00 Shopmium, $3.63 OTC Offer, $5.00 Alexa credit, $4.25 Swag Bucks and $9.50 on Fetch or $65.75 in cash or credits making all this a $21.77 moneymaker.

The pads, pasta, toothpaste and body wash will go to the food bank.

*  Remember that $20 gift card we won at Trivia last week?.....

Well we went back for trivia on Tuesday and the freaking place was closed!  They closed up that day and never notified anyone or even put a sign on the door.  Great!  We win a gift card and now we can't even use it.

So this regional chain only has one location open now so we drove there Wednesday to use the card and play trivia. 

*  So we drove to the bar's other location on Wednesday for trivia and to use this gift card.  This is their last location.  And even though I was scared now to win, we got 3rd place! lol

*  On the way home from the closed bar Tuesday evening, we stopped at CVS so I could use my $5 in ECBs......

2 x Garnier Shampoo on sale=$8.00

1 x Cereal on sale=$1.99

I used a $4/2 Garnier Q and paid with my $5 ECB and .63¢.

I earned back a $2 ECB for the shampoo. Agh, another trip to CVS is on my horizon now. ;-)

This pictured is all bound for the food bank.

*  After PT on Thursday I stopped at where else? Walmart and picked up all this....

1 x Old Spice deo=$12.97

2 x Dove Shampoo=$11.96

2 x Clorox toilet cleaner=$5.36

1 x Crest toothpaste=$8.97

6 x Cesar dog food=$5.88

1 x Bactine liquid bandage=$5.97

2 x Splenda liquid sweetener=$6.99

Total.....$58.10

The only items bought at Kroger were the Splendas, they were BOGO and I got $4.10 from Ibotta(2 x $2 Splenda and a .10¢ any sugar substitute offer).  Plus these were bought on Wednesday got me to my $5 Midweek Bonus.

The rest of the rebates/credits were $22.99 Ibotta(including a $3 Weekend Bonus), $13.34 Shop Kick, $1.50 Shopmium, $4.00 Alexa, $8.50 Swag Bucks, $4.00 TaDa and $2.50 on Fetch.  $60.93 in rebates in total so a $2.83 moneymaker in total on all that.

The deodorant, toothpaste and shampoo will all go to the food bank.

*  As for Kroger and my KCB account...it continues to be a f**king cluster!  The last phone call was with "Charleen" and she can't find the $3.30 from 5/17 or the $12.50  I am owed from 5/19.  She can only see I didn't get a .75¢ KCB offer and put a ticket in.

On Wednesday I get a Korporate form letter from "Mherie Ruth".  After checking with the KCB team it shows that "the offer has already been redeemed on 05/19/2024 with 2 total redemptions".  WTF!  This tells me nothing....no specifics or identifying information.  It's just word salad.  Then she goes on to tell me how to send my KCB to my shopper's card.  I am not an idiot....I know full well how to do that!  That is not the problem.  So I responded in kind and just laid them out as the worthless pieces of sh*t they are.  ALL the items I didn't get back KCB for are going back to the store(except for the Tortilla chips Hubs ate lol)and I am done with this totally dysfunctional operation.  They would rather dance around customers and talk nonsense to them than Fix. Their. System!  This is a major corporation and there is no excuse for offering a system, making a customer jump through hoops to comply with this system and then deny the customer what they are owed.  Ridiculous.

*  I saw a new neurologist this week.  She is on the ball and gave me the thumbs up to fly to VA and try to have that Focused Ultrasound Procedure.  She doubled the amount of meds I was on for ET too as I was severely under medicated for the condition.   I have now transitioned away from that crappy Healthcare System to a new one that is competent.  I am so relieved!

*  I found money!

I found two pennies in Walmart when I went in to return something on Saturday.  1 penny by the CS desk and another by a self-checkout machine.

This penny was found in a different Walmart on Tuesday.

This penny was found in CVS on Tuesday evening by their self-checkout.

This penny was found on the carpet by the vending machines at PT.  I got there early so used the restroom and spied this coin.

And then I found this dime at the Walmart by PT under one of the self-checkout machines.

Total Found last week.... .15¢ 

Grand Total Found this Year.......$5.11 & 5.30 Euros

That's all I got.  

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy     

 

Frugal Friday.....the March 29th Edition

There are a few Frugal wins this past week so here goes....

*  I successfully used up odds and ends and incorporated them into new meals and no food got thrown out. 8-)  Americans throw out an average of 30-40 percent of our food supply(between all sources-each family, stores ditching spoilt food, and the natural waste that happens along the course of going down the food supply chain).  If I can do our little part and not let veg and fruit, etc. rot shoved into the back of the fridge I am happy.  It means we are good stewards of our food resources. 8-)

*  Picked up 2 prescriptions and paid Zero OOP(well, I do pay premiums for a Part D plan). ;-)

*  I cashed out on Tada for a $25 gift card to use later this week.

*  There was no spending on eating out this week other than using a gift card to get a salad for lunch on Thursday at Zaxby's.  They also have an offer if you have their app until the end of March where you can get a small free order of fried shrimp if you spend $5 so I got that also for free.  It was "meh" and Zaxby's should stick to doing chicken imho.

*  I did a little more Ibotta rebating this past week as I was trying to hit a big $10 Bonus and a $5 Weekend Bonus.  I hit the $5 Bonus with this lot from Walmart on Thursday since I was in Walmart picking up prescriptions anyway.

All this was a $24.73 moneymaker, between Ibotta and the $5 Weekend Bonus, that Tada earned gift card mentioned above, Shopmium, Fetch, Tada, Alexa and Social Nature. 8-)))  Even without the gift card this all would have cost me only .27¢. The deodorant and shampoo willl go to the food bank, the tape I will need when I ramp up my eBay business in May, 2 items are gifts for family/friends and the rest we will use.

*  I received a $2 rebate check in the mail this week for a long ago submitted for Dreft stain remover(bought and submitted the rebate last year I think).  I had given up hope of ever receiving that $2 but it's tucked in the bank account now. ;-)

*  I found money!

Hubs and I went to a different Walmart, one a few miles down the road from one we frequent that is a small neighborhood Walmart as it was the only one in the area that carries a product that there was a manufacturer's full price rebate on that I could apply for.  We found a few other deals there(like clearance Kinder bars which made them free after rebate and a Made Good flavor of granola bites that was $1 after rebate and those Reese's ice cream cones that none of our regular Walmarts seemed to have two of in stock for weeks.

Anyway, while leaving I spied a penny on the floor and scooped it up.

Then when we got to the car I saw a whole cache of pennies strewn about the crosshatching of the handicapped parking area in front of where we were parked so I merrily set about picking them up and tucking them into my pants pocket to cart home and wash.  11¢ richer in the found change department for 2024 for that trip was a bonus!

Went to pick up my Rxs at the local Walmart on Thursday.  I found a penny in the crosswalk outside on the way inside and another penny next to the car when I went back out to leave.

Total Found in last Week.... .13¢

Grand Total Found this Year.......$2.69

That's all I got.  

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy    

Frugal Friday.....the December 15th Edition

There are a few Frugal wins this past week so here goes....

*  I went to PT 2x this past week.   Good thing I've hit all my deductibles and co-pays so I'm not shelling out cash for this service.

*  Grocery shopping this past week for December--best deals........

On the 8th at Kroger there was a cart of Kroger 1 lb. peanut butter near the registers marked down to .75¢ each.  I restrained myself and only bought two. 8-)

Also at Kroger, I bought a bottle of Dove Men's body wash and paid $7.49 , then got $3 back on Ibotta, and another $3 back I don't remember on which rebate app.

I also got a pack of Airwick scented refills(2 pack)$6.89 and 2 different rebates attached to it making the rebate $10.

Bought a carton of Oreo Mint Ice Cream on sale for $2.99 and Ibotta gave me a $2 rebate.  Ice Cream for .99¢?  Yes please! (Also got $2+ in ShopKicks making that a moneymaker.) 

I got $9.15 back in Kroger Cash Back on that trip as well.

On the 10th I picked up a tube of Colgate toothpaste at Walmart for $1.97 and got a $3.00 rebate on Ibotta and $1.50 back on Shopmium.  Sweet! Didn't take a picture of that but y'all know what toothpaste looks like, right?

Stopped in at Dollar General and found ground beef marked 50% off.  I just bought one and didn't get a picture before repacking it and putting it into the freezer.

*  I found money!

I found this groady guy between the register counter and the drink cooler at the Chinese restaurant we ate at on Thursday.  He cleaned up pretty good!

Total Found in last Week.... .01¢
Total Found this Year.......$3.51

That's all I got.

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy